Spartak have also reached the semi-finals of all three European club competitions. Historically, the club was a part of the Spartak sports society.

Other teams in the society include ice hockey club HC Spartak Moscow. Currently, the club is not connected with the Spartak sports society and is an independent privately owned organisation.

In the early days of Soviet football, many government agencies such as the police, army and railroads created their own clubs. So many statesmen saw in the wins of their teams the superiority over the opponents patronising other teams.

Almost all the teams had such kind of patrons — Dynamo Moscow with the militsiya , CSKA Moscow with the Red Army and Spartak, created by a trade union public organization was considered to be "the people's team.

The society was founded under the influence of the Pan-Slavic "Sokol movement" with the aim of promoting the "Sokolsk gymnastics" and then other sports: Presnya is a district of Moscow renowned for the radical politics of its inhabitants.

For example, it was the centre of the Moscow uprising of The team grew, building a stadium, supporting itself from ticket sales and playing matches across the Russian SFSR.

As part of a reorganization of football in the Soviet Union, Starostin arranged for the club to be sponsored by the food workers union and the club moved to the 13, seat Tomsky Stadium , known as Pishcheviki.

The team changed sponsors repeatedly over the following years as it competed with Dinamo Moscow, whose 35, seat Dynamo Stadium lay close by.

As a high-profile sportsman, Starostin came into close contact with Alexander Kosarev, secretary of the Komsomol Communist Union of Youth who already had a strong influence on sport and wanted to extend it.

In November , with funding from Promkooperatsiia, Kosarev employed Starostin and his brothers to develop his team to make it more powerful.

Again the team changed its name, this time to "Spartak Moscow" the name Spartak means " Spartacus ", a gladiator who led an uprising against Ancient Rome.

The club founders, four Starostin brothers, played a big role in the formation of the team. The Starostins played for the red-whites in the s but right before World War II they were subjected to repression as the leaders of the most hated [ clarification needed ] team by the state authorities.

Elder brother Nikolai Starostin wrote in his books that he had survived in the State Prison System due to his participation in football and with Spartak.

After the political rehabilitation , in , he would later return to the team as the squad's manager. In , Starostin proposed the name Spartak.

It was inspired by the Italian novel Spartaco , written by Raffaello Giovagnoli , and means Spartacus "Spartak" in Russian , a gladiator -slave who led a rebellion against Rome.

Starostin is also credited with the creation of the Spartak logo. Czechoslovak manager Antonin Fivebr is credited as the first head coach of Spartak, though he worked as a consultant in several clubs simultaneously.

When the Soviet national team won gold medals at the Melbourne Olympics , it consisted largely of Spartak players.

Spartak captain Igor Netto was the captain of the national team from to In the s, Spartak won two league titles, but by the mids, Spartak was no more regarded as a leading Soviet club.

The club was even less successful in the s and in Spartak was relegated into the lower league.

During the following season, the stadium was still full as the club's fans stayed with the team during its time in the lower division.

Konstantin Beskov , who became the head coach as a footballer Beskov made his name playing for Spartak's main rivals, Dynamo , introduced several young players, including Rinat Dasayev and Georgi Yartsev.

Spartak came back the next year and won the title in , beating Dynamo Kyiv and thanks to Spartak supporters, the period is considered to be the start of the modern-style fans' movement in the Soviet Union.

Sixty-six people died in a stampede during the match, [4] making it Russia's worst sporting disaster. Thierno Thioub from Stade de Mbour [4].

Dzhikiya 24 years old 10 1. Bocchetti 31 years old 10 0. Kutepov 25 years old 3 0. Eshchenko 34 years old 4 0. Maslov 18 years old 0 0.

Mamin 21 years old 0 0. Rasskazov 20 years old 7 0. Ananidze 26 years old 0 0. Glushakov 31 years old 7 0. Fernando 26 years old 10 1.

Samedov 34 years old 7 0. Ignatov 18 years old 5 1. Kombarov 31 years old 9 1. Problems began in the new century, however.

Several charismatic players Ilya Tsymbalar and Andrey Tikhonov among others left the club as a result of conflict with Romantsev.

Later, Romantsev sold his stock to oil magnate Andrei Chervichenko, who in became the club president. The two were soon embroiled in a row that would continue until Romantsev was sacked in with the club suffering several sub-par seasons until Chervichenko finally sold his stock in The new ownership made a number of front office changes with the aim of returning the team to the top of the Russian Premier League.

In the season , Spartak, led by Aleksandrs Starkovs , finished second in the league following an impressive run to beat Lokomotiv Moscow , Zenit Saint Petersburg and Rubin Kazan to the last Champions League place.

Following a mixed start to the season and public criticism from Dmitry Alenichev , the team's captain and one of its most experienced players, Starkovs left his position to Vladimir Fedotov.

Spartak has been entitled to place a golden star on its badge since to commemorate winning five Russian championships in , , , and They have won the championship another four times since Since , the club have added another three stars as rules allowed teams to include titles won during the Soviet era.

In the league, Spartak finished in fourth place while in the cup it was eliminated in the round of 16 by FC Rostov pen. As a result, Spartak won the —17 Russian Premier League after a spectacular performance and the club won most derbies and finished with a difference of 7 points.

The team is usually called "red-and-whites," but among the fans "The Meat" Russian: The origins of the nickname belong to the days of the foundation of the club; in the s, the team was renamed several times, from "Moscow Sports Club" to "Red Presnya" after the name of one of the districts of Moscow to "Pishcheviki" "Food industry workers" to "Promkooperatsiya" "Industrial cooperation" and finally to "Spartak Moscow" in , and for many years the team was under patronage of one of the Moscow food factories that dealt with meat products.

One of the most favourite slogans of both the fans and players is, "Who are we? FC Spartak Moscow's main colour is red.

At present, Spartak's archrival is CSKA Moscow , although this is a relatively recent rivalry that has only emerged in the last 25 years.

Matches against Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg attract thousands of people as well, almost always resulting in packed stadia.

Also fans of Spartak have generally friendly relationships with Torpedo Moscow supporters. Until , Spartak had never had its own stadium, with the team historically playing in various Moscow stadia throughout its history, even once playing an exhibition match in Red Square.

The team played home games at various Moscow stadiums - especially at the Locomotiv and Luzhniki stadiums. After the purchase of the club by Andrei Chervichenko in the early s, several statements were made about the speedy construction of the stadium, but construction did not begin.

After a controlling stake in the club was bought by Leonid Fedun, real steps were taken to promote the stadium project, and in , the Government of Moscow allocated land at Tushino Aeropol at a size of The project involved the main arena of 42, people with natural lawn, sports, and an entertainment hall for tennis, handball, basketball and volleyball for 12, spectators.

The ceremony of laying the first stone took place on June 2, In February , it was announced that as a result of a sponsorship deal with Otkritie FC Bank "Discovery" , the stadium will be called Otkritie Arena for 6 years.

The opening match at the new stadium took place on September 5, , when Spartak drew with the Serbian side Red Star Belgrade The first competitive match took place on September 14, , in which Spartak defeated Torpedo Moscow in the 7th round of the championship.

Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record.

Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Spartak.